Months after pit bull mauling, nightmares haunt victim

Steve Constantine suffered a near fatal dog mauling in late October when he was trying to feed his friend's dogs in Detroit. Constantine lost his left ear, left leg, and left arm in the attack.
Mandi Wright, Detroit Free Press

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Steve Constantine lost his left ear, left arm and left leg below the knee during the attack by a dozen pit bulls or pit bull mixes.(Photo: Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press)Buy Photo

The details are murky about that night in October when a dozen dogs attacked him, tearing his flesh and limbs.

By the time the mauling ended, the 50-year-old man was left mostly naked on a darkened east-side Detroit street with his arms and legs shredded, and he was clinging to life.

"There was no streetlight, and it was a dark street and nobody around so I'm screwed. I'm like, 'Somebody help me,' but who's going to hear me. I didn't see a soul," Constantine said. "I don't recall people showing up and helping me, and somebody said they had to shoot one of the dogs, you know, and somebody said the dogs were on me so they couldn't shoot because, you know, they might have shot me."

For Constantine, many of the details of the attack are fuzzy, but he recalls a dog biting him and one "calmly" licking him. He pleaded for help and begged the dogs to stop.

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Steve Constantine suffered a near-fatal dog mauling in October when he was trying to feed his friend's dogs in Detroit.(Photo: Mandi Wright/Detroit Free Press)

Other images from the attack return to him only at night. Constantine has a recurring dream of a black dog that he fears will bite him. He grabs the dog's "muzzle and its bottom jaw ... and I keep saying, 'Come on, quit it, quit it.' "

Police believe 12 dogs — pit bulls or pit bull mixes — attacked Constantine, pinning him to the ground and ripping into his flesh. A 911 caller described the dogs as "all over him." Police had to shoot one of the dogs, which were so vicious that rescue workers could not immediately render aid. The rest of the dogs were seized and euthanized.

It's been an understandable struggle for Constantine, who is originally from Warren but came to Detroit about a year ago. He was in critical condition when he was brought to Detroit Receiving Hospital after the nighttime attack on Oct. 2 and underwent scores of surgeries that included skin grafts to cover the bones in his right arm and leg.

But despair is not the message Constantine sends even as he recounts the horrors he has been through. He calls himself fortunate and speaks of optimism as he describes his future as uncertain. Constantine has lost his left ear, most of his left arm and his left leg below the knee.

"This is my life right now, I guess, and that's just about how it works. This is my life and (I'm) still moving forward," Constantine said Tuesday as he sat dressed in a gray and black flannel shirt and gray sweat pants in a wheelchair at Select Specialty Hospital in Mt. Clemens. "I don't know for sure where I'm going to end up. I'm hoping I end up independent or where I can rely on myself mostly."

At one point during the interview, Constantine moved the remnant of his left arm to show what he can still do. His sister had even attached a pencil to the splint on his right arm so he could punch numbers on a telephone.

"There's moments when I'm barely myself. There's moments when I can barely function. And I'm insecure … but I do seem to make it back to this place where I am myself," he said.

Vijay Malaichamy, senior rehab manager at Select Specialty Hospital, noted that "Steve is always very upbeat" and "that positive attitude is going to help him tremendously to overcome the challenges he's going to face during his progress."

Constantine hopes eventually to be fitted with prosthetics to replace his missing limbs.

The dogs' owner, Derrick (Butch) Felton, 61, received five misdemeanor citations, and the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office was asked to consider charges in the case, which remains under investigation.

A lawsuit has also been filed on Constantine's behalf by the Sam Bernstein Law Firm against Felton and his mother, Elizabeth Collins Felton, who owns the house on Pennsylvania Street where Felton lived with his dogs.

In a phone call to a Free Press reporter, Felton has claimed that the story is a lie and disputed the number and breed of dogs involved.

Today, Constantine described Felton as a friend, someone he met while helping out at a party store and someone he would pal around with. He described being with Felton and his dogs at some point prior to the attack, eating a sandwich and not fearing that they would eventually turn on him.

The night of the attack, Constantine said he walked to Felton's house after he could not sleep — he had seen Felton earlier — and decided to feed the dogs because someone had left a 50-pound bag of food at Felton's house. It's something, he said, that was not "very smart on my part."

The recovery has been a challenge, and Constantine said there were times after he initially came to the hospital when he was in and out consciousness.

"I would be doing wonderfully or I would be doing terribly. There were times when I would be practically dead ... but I haven't felt that bad lately, and things are going well," he said.

Constantine, the youngest of six siblings, also talked of a reconnection with his family members whom he had not seen in a year. His sister, Cathy Hawley of Shelby Township, spoke previously of his struggles with mental illness as an adult. He said he came to Detroit because he was homeless after the friend he was living with in Warren lost his home.

"They say things happen for a reason. … Bringing me close to my family again has got to be the reason," Constantine said.

Despite the life-changing injuries, Constantine acknowledged that his story could have ended even more tragically.

"It's a good feeling being alive," he said, noting the uncertainty he faced during the attack. "Like I was saying, that night, I just kept saying, 'Please stop.' I didn't know they were going to stop."